ABSTRACT
The problem of advising the President on scientific matters is not basically different from advising him on any other matters, except for the fact that people who become President rarely have strong scientific foundations. Another point with regard to the composition of the President’s Science Advisory Committee and the selection of the Science Adviser himself. The relations between the Executive and the Legislative are not always smooth; they haven’t been so in the last few administrations. The Russians had the Sputnik and our name was mud. A great deal of the international prestige of the United States has come about because of the high level of scientific achievement in the United States in the World War II and post-war years. The military supplied the money because they had needs, or fancied they had needs, for very superior science and technology. The Congress certainly needs such advice; and it is getting it abundantly from the staff of the National Science Foundation.
